Is Superman unethical?

Please allow me a farcical device to take a poke at some recent navel gazing by the media. This gazing involves the self-outing by former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas as an undocumented immigrant. He revealed this in a story that appeared in the New York Times, after the Washington Post spiked the story earlier.

The media introspection involves the reality that Vargas wrote about undocumented immigration while he was, gasp!, an undocumented immigrant, and that he lied about his personal history to keep his jobs in newspapering.

Now, I would be the first to say that you should not lie about your personal history to get and keep a job. It is, however, by definition, the name of the game if you are an undocumented immigrant. It is the nature of the beast. Vargas was by all accounts very good at his job. He broke stories for the newspapers for which he worked and shared in a Pulitzer Prize for his work at the Post covering the Virginia Tech shootings.

Newspapers are no more immune to this phenomenon of feeling it necessary to lie about residency status as are restaurants, hotels or farms when it comes to immigration. Yes, Vargas lied — a charge journalists in particular feel is exceedingly serious — but he lied on an application, not, to my knowledge, in stories. Moreover, he was, by virtue of being an undocumented immigrant, well versed in the topic whenever he did write on immigration.

So, question: Is being an undocumented immigrant and writing on immigration without disclosing that fact any different than being a reporter who opposes comprehensive immigration reform writing on the topic without disclosing that opposition?

Immigration is not a topic that lends itself to blacks and whites, as much as is depicted. It is full of grays. People who seriously cover immigration know this.

What does this have to do with Superman? Please allow me this farcical analogy to make the point, the idea for which bloomed from a post by Jim Romenesko on the Poynter Institute website. It had to do with Clark Kent, Superman’s secret cover identity. He’s a newspaper reporter. Not only has he lied about his identity to get and keep a job but he writes about Superman. How’s that for conflict of interest?

By the way, Superman also is an undocumented immigrant and he isn’t unethical either.

It would be better if we had a policy that more openly and expansively welcomed immigrants who want to contribute to this country. A guest worker program in comprehensive immigration reform would get us closer.